Nathan Stolz: Shadow Rise
by SeanB1014
Summary: Having been forced into a dull foster home, Nathan Stolz of 16 one day comes across the world of Pokémon through a mysterious tree. Running away after an incident, Nate crosses over once again and pursues an advanced academy for late-starting trainers. But the evil group Cipher which refuses to stay down, plot in the darkness. Can Nate stop them as he awakens his hidden abilities?


It was a dreadful morning to wake up to. A depressing atmosphere filled the entire home, as it always did after a long night of fighting. After all, things were never as awkward as the morning after a huge fight.

Nathan Patrick Stolz, a pale-faced boy around 15 years old with messy brown hair and oval-shaped glasses, groaned loudly as he struggled to sit up in his very messy bed. His room was dead-silent due to neither the washer nor the dryer having been turned on as it usually was in the mornings. His room was tiny and messy with clothes spread all over the floor, and the large bookshelf and dresser which held his TV and his two videogame consoles, were stockpiled with clutter. The air was musty and thick, because both of the windows higher up on the walls had been shut. The boy groggily got himself up, got dressed in his pajamas and opened up his bedroom door, walking the very short distance toward the kitchen. The home he lived in was many things short of an average house, for it could only house two or three people, as it was a sort of cramped little cabin-like home, so there was no hallway, as everything was close enough to each other. Up the front doorsteps, one would be right between the bathroom on the right, and the kitchen on the left. Aside from the bathroom was the only bedroom, in which the teenager came out of. Directly across from the door of that room, a few feet away, was the kitchen, and to the right was the living room, being the main room of the small house, where the boy's mother had slept. Nate entered the kitchen only to find his mother inside, about to exit as he muttered a "…Hey…" to her. She did not respond.

It was the 16th of June; both Nate and his mother, Michelle, had a fight the night before. They have fought before, but this was different. The boy just couldn't believe that the fight was over something as small as him not wanting to do the dishes, him claiming that he had a headache. To his knowledge, his mother drank alcoholic beverages daily, but nothing more than beer or wine. What was so bad about that fight was that that night, his mother came to the dramatic decision to put her son into a foster home, which he had considered wanting before, as he wanted no part in living with his estranged mother in the first place.

But this decision had poor timing. Nate loved the school he went to, he made a few decent friends and all this time, believed he would spend the rest of school at Truckee High School, spending an adequate amount of years living in Lake Tahoe, even though he was a troublemaker sometimes. He'd mess around with the teachers, with his friends, and just try to have a good time like all other teenagers. But there were times he went too far with things such as stealing food from his Foods and Nutrition class as well as the cafeteria where he volunteered for a short while, getting slightly temperamental with other students and teachers, and even finding himself getting pushed around by the school officer on duty that hung around indoors on campus. But no matter how much trouble he got into, he had friends he thought he would stay with for a longer period of time than other schools in his life. Nate moved many times in his life, partly due to the fact that his mother could not hold onto a job for very long, or her relationship issues with her past ex-boyfriends whom she and Nate lived with before. All Nate could do was accept the fact that he would have to leave his friends behind again, and move for the twelfth time in his life to a foster home he was unsure he still wanted to go to or not.

"Maybe it wouldn't be so bad," he thought many times. As long as there would be a fair supply of internet he could use, he thought he would be fine. Nate's biggest hobby of all was using the internet, and it occupied much of his usual free time.

There was only a dead silence as Nate spent the morning stuck up in his room, playing his Pokémon games and petting his two cats Bubba and Missy, as well as his dog Lady, who was a neurotic whiner and anxious black hound most of the time, but always a real sweetheart. Nate had loved Pokémon ever since he was 5 years old, and could never imagine himself more interested in anything else. He very rarely had money to spend however, and he almost never got paid. The only Pokémon games he owned due to dedicated saving throughout his life were Pokémon Emerald, Pokémon Colosseum, and Pokémon FireRed. It was 2009, the year Platinum version came out, but Nate was stuck in the "3rd Generation", as the fans called it.

Nate's mother finally found a foster home within a week, and Nate didn't know what to think of it. He wanted to know what it was like, first of all, and decide for himself whether it was for him or not.

"It's in Sacramento," she said to him one morning. "You'll spend three days there, just to get familiar with it. We can choose another one if you don't like it, okay?"

"Okay, I guess." Nate replied.

"Three days, and if I like it, I can choose to stay," he thought to himself. It only seemed fair. Nate's mother wasn't always so estranged. Most days she would be fair like this and have her mind in balance, like right now. On other days, however, well, we already covered that.

It was now 3 weeks after their huge fight, and Nate awoke with curiosity burning inside him. Today was the day he'd check out the foster home he'd probably have to live in. He only kept hoping it was better than living with his mom. Nate packed a few pairs of shirts, underwear, and pants atop his Gameboy Advance with Pokémon Emerald Version inside of it, however the batteries were dying, and he had no new ones.

It was a long drive to Sacramento, and Nate was shaking with anticipation. He was imagining how stable he would be with a fair time for everything he wanted to do on the internet, how there would be plenty of things for him to do if he wanted. He could only hope that the foster home provided these things.

He and his mom hardly struck conversation in the car, except where Nate attempted to get her to confirm with his mom his 3-day deal, and so she did, and a while later they set off past a very urbanized, yet slightly underdeveloped part of town. It almost looked ghetto to Nate. But then, he arrived in what looked like a very beautiful town. The trees were so green, and so was the grass. They were everywhere, so clean, Nate couldn't believe that grass, trees and bushes could look so clean. There looked to be a peaceful air around this town, which appeared to be called Elk Grove by the names of all the shops in this town. Nate's mom spent quite a while searching for the foster home's location, until they finally stopped in a court-like street, parked on the house that was 4368 Glorieta Court. It was a single story, and apparently had a barn-like building in the back, painted yellow and brown like the house itself. The garage door opened, and a big pale old man came out and greeted Nate's mother.

"Nate, this is Gary, he's one of the foster parents you're going to live with," his mom said.

"Hello Nate, how are you?" Gary said in a rumbly voice as he held out his clammy hand. Nate shook it lightly as he usually did. Gary looked old, and he had arms so thick that looked like they could lift a car, but also carried a tone of voice that sounded like he was irritated about something, a tone that would probably cause a car to inch away in scorn instead. He was near bald with white hair growing out the back of his head, and there was no part of his skin that looked smooth. It looked like he had scabs and scars everywhere, but then again, so did other old people he'd seen.

"Uhh, good…" replied Nate. Unsure of what to feel, he just waited patiently as his mother and Gary spoke.

"Sorry we took so long getting here, this is a nice house you've got!" Nate's mom said, and this was her usual social blabbering she did when she met someone new or ran into someone.

After what felt like 10 minutes, Gary invited the two inside. As they all entered the garage, an old woman much like Gary, yet of scrunched up black eyes and a tannish skin, came out the doorway leading to inside the house.

"Hello, nice to meet you," she greeted with a Filipino accent and a frail voice.

"Hello, Fe, nice to meet you too!" Nate's mom said. After more chit-chat, it was finally the moment of truth.

Fe opened the white door wider.

"You may come in," she said. "But we leave our shoes off in the house, we wear only socks inside, no bare feet."

Nate thought nothing of this and just removed his shoes as he was told. When he stepped inside, he shuddered as he smelled the house. It smelled as if there was some kind of… 3 month-old casserole that had previously been spread all over every square inch of the walls. It smelled something you'd expect from an old people home. The glass dining table sat in the very center of everything; the hall, kitchen, front door and living room. It was very clean and white inside, but Nate had a feeling that this smell would haunt him forever. And he was right; the living room looked okay, except for a couple of things: the TV was kind of small and sat on the ground, and by the looks of its exterior being part wooden and having knobs of metal, this TV was ancient. But that wasn't what worried him. In the far corner of the living room was a large vertical shelf that held another ancient artifact: one of those old white computers with its thick and heavy structure. As the three adults spoke still in the garage, Nate wandered the house by itself, wondering why old people loved old technology so much if it wasn't as good as modern technology nowadays. Nate wanted to be sure of something. He snuck on the old computer, turned it on, and it logged in automatically with no problem. At least it was Windows XP, so it wasn't that old according to Nate's preference. He looked in the lower right corner and felt his heart sink; there was no internet plugged in.

"Well, I'm totally screwed out of my usual entertainment for a while," he thought.

He then walked down the hall and saw the bathroom at the very end, and there were two doors on the left that led to the bedrooms, and one on the right he guessed was the master bedroom. He looked in the first normal bedroom on his left which was open, and the next one being closed and perhaps locked, he presumed. Nate realized this open one was his room. He saw not one, but two beds in the room; one against the wall with the window overlooking the front, and one sticking out from the wall next to his door. These beds were not normal, as they were tightly covered in a squeaky, papery and strong fabric that he could tell that it would be a ghastly experience to sleep on any of them.

"Cool, so when will these damn things be removed so I can feel the bed and sleep on it?" Nate wondered aloud to the empty room.

So far, he would have to spend 3 days in the care of old retired people, in a house that smelled like old retired people, and worst of all, little technology that may supply entertainment to old and retired people, but certainly not to the youth of today. This house was lacking modernization all around.

Nate spent the next 20 minutes sitting in his room. No games to play, nothing to eat until dinner, and not wanting to upset his temporary caretakers by removing the disgustingly papery fabric covering the bed by himself so he could have some comfort. He never forgot his end of the deal though, and plucked up the courage to keep himself together. Nate's mom came in later to say goodbye to him, and she left in her usual social talkative self. Nate walked out of his room and came across the two elderly beings in the dining room.

"Okay, well," Gary began, "First of all, you may help yourself to some food in the kitchen if you want. We eat dinner at 6:30, lunch at 12:30. If you want to use the phone, ask us first. You may only go out of your room at night to use the bathroom. Oh, and Kevin, our other child, gets home from school at 3:00, but he is at his father's for the night."

"At least I wouldn't be alone," Nate thought.

They gave him the rest of the rundown of the rules. Nate spent the rest of the day until evening watching Encore on TV. At least he saw some action and horror movies he thought he wouldn't regularly live to see as long as he was with his mom. But the very limited number of TV shows that the old couple watched was the only thing that kept Nate entertained, and he did not feel fully satisfied due to the dull atmosphere.

Dinner came at the aforementioned time, and he ate an acceptable meal of salad and spaghetti. After a boring shower, he went into his room. It was 8:00 pm now, and bedtime. Gary and Fe slept together every night in the master bedroom across his door. Nate saw that the papery fabric was still there, on both beds. Nate would have knocked on their door to ask them kindly to remove it, but there were plenty of things Nate would have asked already if there wasn't a big thundering old man who would overshadow and look down at him before responding. He didn't want to seem rude on accident, and could not help being easily intimidated by these people. They were old and wrinkled, and Nate thought strongly that it would feel impolite to ask them for anything. Nate, accepting his current situation, got into bed, groaning as the weird fabric squeaked and made loud noises every time he moved even the slightest. He had had it. He brought his blanket and pillow with him onto the floor. The floor was a tad better, even though carpeting wasn't something one would usually want to directly sleep on. But Nate still could not sleep. For not only did Gary begin loud fits of coughing that could wake up the dead, but the fact that this wasn't his own room, and nothing in that room could even come close to being a bed, ate away at his spirit.

Nate soon got up to use the bathroom, but the moment he walked out into the hallway, he heard a very loud beeping noise comprised of two notes; one high and one low, sounding exactly like the tune one would hear opening the door to a 7-Eleven, only amped up to 15 times the loudness. Every move he made set off what became relevant as a motion-detecting alarm. It was so loud, there could be no doubt that the whole house could hear it. After using the bathroom and the device going off again, Nate contemplated what Gary had said.

"'Help yourself to something,' he says," Nate said in a mocking voice.

Why, Nate thought. Why would the old man say such a thing, when the very house itself was set up to make him look like a guilty little punk?

He would give almost anything to be able to go back to his school. Maybe he could if he chose to not go to any more foster homes. It was only 2 and a half more days, he could bear it. But those 2 and a half days took forever to pass. Nate much preferred his home in Lake Tahoe compared to this retirement home. At least he met Kevin, and Kevin seemed alright. He was thirteen with short blonde hair, and spoke in a sort of way that you could tell he was had special needs. He and Nate played a couple games of Monopoly, but that was the only game to play, ever, at the time. The afternoon of the final day took forever to arrive, and Nate spent it all watching the front yard for any sign of his mom showing up. At last, she did, and when Nate had the chance to go out in front, he bolted. His mom, the only thing able to bring him back to his real home was there at last.

"So, what did you think, Nate?" Fe asked him in her frail voice and foreign accent. Nate faked his words as best as he could, hiding his sheer disappointment.

"It was nice, kind of a quiet atmosphere," he replied.

"No trouble at all, Michelle," Gary had said before she rambled on.

"Well that's good. You know, I've been meaning to ask what's in that barn house of yours in the back, blah blah blah blah blah….."

Nate finally had his things packed and shoved in the car, sat in the front seat, so eager to get back home, back to his own bed, back to his games, to his pets, where he belonged. After all that rambling, his mom finally said her goodbyes, and got in the car.

"I don't think that it is right for me, it wasn't that good at all," Nate explained as his mom pulled out and got onto the main road as Nate tried his best to hold back what tone and words he had really wanted to express, as he expected the words of an understanding mother who would respect his opinions on something such as a permanent living situation such as this one. But the words his mother spoke instead sunk his heart all the way into his stomach.

"Nope, you're staying there."

Nate could not believe it. Why? Why why why why why? Why on EARTH? Just… WHY? That was all Nate could ask himself. He had no freedom over this decision, he wasn't 18, hell he wasn't even 16 yet.

"But… why? We had a deal! You said if I didn't like it, I could choose to not stay there!" Nate began to argue.

"I changed my mind, end of story. I think you know why I don't want you living back with me!" Nate's mother argued back. They left the town of Elk Grove and got on the freeway, headed to where Nate previously thought he would be free. He continued to argue, but there was never a possibility of winning one against his own mother. Nothing he could do or say could change the way things were going to go. This was it, this was going to be the end of him. He didn't know how long he'd stay there. All Nate knew was that he was screwed big time.

Nate could only do a few things to savor what inner happiness he had left; he had to enjoy the time he had in Lake Tahoe he had remaining. After all, he'd have to return in August right before the school year began, so he had a month and a half to enjoy the time he had. And so he did. He played on his computer, played all the games, sucked up all the internet time every chance he had, spent more time with his cats and his dog, and watched TV at the latest hours at night. This was in fact the worst summer vacation ever, with what felt more like a life sentence rather than a death sentence hanging over his head. He'd have wanted to go to summer school even more now, at Truckee. He never considered it before, he didn't see foresee anything of this nature.

As the 16th of August arrived, the day prior to his permanent stay in Elk Grove, Nate believed he at least spent all the time he could with all he would have to leave behind. That night, Nate, enjoying what he thought to be his last true bed, slept surprisingly soundly.

It was morning time, and Nate had his belongings packed. Maybe it wouldn't be that bad, he thought. He imagined making new friends at his new school, fitting in, finding someone who shared his interests, and maybe even falling in love with another person. But that was a week away, and though he didn't show or feel it, deep down he had some feeling of excitement at something as new as this. But he could never forget his old friends. He was going to be in his Junior year in a different high school, after spending 2 years at Truckee with his two best friends Jayme and David. At least he felt he would be familiar with high school, fitting in much easier. Pondering all these things, he got into the car. He had asked his mom to at least let him bring his mattress to use instead of those dastardly beds at Gary and Fe's. He couldn't take his desktop computer and monitor, however, even though they had so many games on it he could play. As Nate stepped in the car, he took one last breath of Tahoe air, and shut the car door.

Nate was silent the entire car ride there, for he was too occupied with all the thoughts running through his head. This was the beginning of a wasted life he knew he was having, a long period of time, unknown of exactly how long, but knowing that it would be extremely dull and contaminated with the smell of the elderly. What little cheeriness the thought of a new school life contained was easily clouded by his so-called life sentence.

Life at Elk Grove, or at least the only life he could ever experience, that being strictly inside and briefly outdoors per day at the household as well as at school which had not turned out to be a good place at all was, so far, the worst living situation Nate had ever found himself in. Nate attended Elk Grove High School, a very public high school right on the main road. He expected to at least encounter some friendly faces, but Nate found that half of the school was obnoxious, immature and dressed rather grotesquely. Nate was not comfortable being around this sort of environment, as not even Truckee had people this foul. But what made his time at school there the worst, was that not even his fellow classmates respected him well enough, and surprisingly, not even his teachers either. One boy with short black hair he felt he was most comfortable around, Bear, was not like the others. Nate had a feeling he could get along with him at least, as well as another who sat behind him, with curly black hair and glasses like his own, Edward, who seemed to be smarter than everyone else.

Nate took an Art class as his first period in another room across the school, but spent the rest of his periods in his homeroom such as Math and English, but he went outside to lunch. He usually spent the rest of school having Government class (which he hated with all his heart), and finally, at the end of the school day with all homeroom students gathered together, taking some sort of Social Skills class. But regardless of the two people he felt most comfortable with, he hated Elk Grove High School. He hated Elk Grove. He hated the foster home he lived in. He wanted to go back home. He knew he didn't belong. But there was nothing he could do.

Over the course of a month, Nate had learned the purpose barn-like building in the back; it housed Gary's old mom who stayed in bed all the time. She was monitored by camera, and could be seen on a monitor in the living room above the computer desk. Occasionally she made noises, which signaled for one of the oldies to attend to her needs. But when she passed away one night, Nate had a TV moved in his room, which was previously inside Gary's late mother's room. It was set up in Nate's room with an old antenna system. Nate never used something like this, but he got the hang of turning the antennas the right way, but there were not many channels Nate could find interesting. Most of them were sports, little kid cartoons and channels that didn't work. Over time, Nate discovered the times where the right shows would be on, and he also discovered Saturday morning cartoons when they came on, but these little improvements meant almost nothing to him, for both Nate's school and "home" could never be seen by him as whole as life almost was when living in Lake Tahoe.

Nate's birthday came on the 14th of October. It wasn't too bad, as he got a decent-sized cake, a new pair of shoes, and a box of items his older sister sent him, containing cheap toys such as a bendable ring-like mini football, a container of non-toxic goo-like substance with a tiny plastic Triceratops stuck inside, and much more. It was basically two months since he'd been there, he was grateful to at least have some things to play and fidget with. The 22nd of October came on a dry Thursday, and by then he had been in school for exactly two months. His homeroom teacher, Mrs. Graham, a middle-aged woman with gray hair who served in the military, announced to the class at the end of the day that they were having a field trip on the Monday after next. Nate sighed heavily, much relieved to leave school today to go somewhere. Aside from being called names like "swine-flu kid" (due to a slight cold he had for a while) or general meaningless insults from a few of the kids such as Chris, a curly brown-haired boy, Anthony, a dark-gray haired boy with what looked to be a face with a natural snooty evil-grin-with-braces look upon his face, and Cassie, Chris' girlfriend who was a redhead girl with hair dyed black but not as black as the heart she seemed to have, Nate gained a tiny glimmer of excitement to hear what Mrs. Graham was going to tell the class where they will go.

"We will go on a nature walk through Elkwood Park," she announced. "It's only down the street, and we will all get out into the outdoors and observe nature up-close with the binoculars we can rent. For lunch, I will purchase you all something from the food stand, but it has to be under $10 per person."

She handed everyone empty permission slips, requesting that the whole class get their permission slips signed and all that. Nate was glad to go out on a field trip soon, they were always one of those lucky breaks one would get in school, though as a child, one must have at least once, taken one for granted.

That Monday at breakfast with Gary, Fe and Kevin, Nate got his permission slip filled out. He handed it to Gary that very Thursday, yet because this was a foster home, Gary and Fe spent the weekend contacting the local Regional Center, the business that watched over foster homes across the country, about the matter of the field trip. Because of this, Nate learned that a matter as simple as a permission slip signing would have to go through many people such as social workers and parents, just to have an short off-campus trip for a few hours on one day.

"Some system," Nate thought.

At breakfast, Nate was eating his cereal, thinking about the field trip. Sure it sounded a little boring to him, a nature walk, but it was a hell of a lot better than staying at school.

"Hey Nate," Gary began in his raspy rumbly deep voice. "We found some place up the street that will be hiring students soon, maybe it will be a nice way to earn allowance for two more years. What do you think?"

Nate nearly choked on the milk in his bowl. Two more years of this place?! He'd only been there two months, and things were not getting better! Nate thought he'd at least have a joyful time on the field trip, but now he had the thought of being forced to live two more years in the dreaded home until he was 18 looming over him, and that feeling hung like the life sentence he saw coming, over his head for the remainder of the morning. He couldn't take it anymore already, he had enough as it was; the loud beeping alarms in the house at night that made him look and feel like an escaping prisoner just for going out of the hall, the intimidation he experienced when he feared of being too impolite towards a fat old man who was short-tempered at times, the dull, non-modern feel of the house he lived in, the deprivation of technological entertainment… Sure there was a TV, but that's all he had, a crappy antenna TV from the 90s or something.

Nate arrived to his homeroom first thing, handed in his signed permission slip to Mrs. Graham, and stayed put until she gathered every student out of the classroom and onto a long yellow bus parked on one side of the school. Nate could hear Anthony mutter something about him to Cassie and Chris, it couldn't be good, but punching their lights out, no matter how good it would feel to a very willing Nate, wouldn't do it. Not yet, at least.

The bus only drove about half a mile down the street, meaning that the park wasn't that far away. When the students got off, they overlooked an enormous enclosure, about the same size as the perimeter of their own school. None of them were surprised, except for Nate, who was an outsider to this county. It had very detailed stone décor all around, and a large and flat concrete circle in the very center, where stone benches lined the edge. There were concrete pathways connecting to and from the gigantic circle, one of them led into the thick green forest. _Too green_, Nate believed. In fact, every single form of vegetation in Elk Grove seemed too green and too perfect to be real. Nate almost couldn't believe the fact that the grass and trees in that town were real.

Nate realized that he and the rest of the class were already standing at the entrance to the forest, and before he knew it, was shoved a pair of binoculars that a big bearded man passed out to everyone. Nate, as usual, was so caught up in his silly thoughts that he didn't even see his teacher pay the man who was sitting at the large souvenir stand which held an enormous supply of binoculars.

Nate's whole class advanced into the thick of the large green trees he didn't know the names to. It was cloudy and cold outside, the usual weather for an autumn morning. It cleared up little by little later on, as the class walked half a mile through the dense trees, arriving at what looked like where they just came from, the same circular stone platform, except there was a wooden sign right in front of the party that read _You are now entering Elkwood Park – West Front_.

"I'm tired," said one of the students. "Is it lunch time yet?"

"Yep," replied Mrs. Graham. "I'll be buying your lunches at the stands, but nothing over $10, got it?"

Everyone agreed, and the whole class got food. Nate got some chili cheese fries and thanked Mrs. Graham rather hesitantly. He hadn't felt grateful for anything lately, and he didn't expect himself saying those two words again after everything that's happened to him recently.

It was noon, and Nate had his much-needed lunch, but it wasn't all that filling. The entire class headed back into the thick woods, the whole class feeling fat and happy, following along the trail as Mrs. Graham pointed out more things they had already seen on the trail. Nate however, no matter how hard he tried to think of something different, was still weighed down by his life sentence. Two more years of his life, wasted on a foster home, against his will… He had pleaded and pleaded for the social workers to take him away from it, but they didn't listen, they never did. Nobody listens to a minor.

Suddenly, Nate nearly bumped into one of the students who stood still in their tracks, and noticed that everyone was either slowing down or stopping, looking at something. Nate walked around the small crowd and saw that everyone's attention was fixed on one particular tree on the side. This one was different, as it was as large as the other thick trees, yet it had a large through-and-through hole in its trunk, tall enough for a person of Nate's size to walk through. Nate saw some of his classmates walk through it, some claiming they didn't see that tree when they were walking along the trail beforehand. Feeling his own feet carry him as they did along the entire trail, Nate walked toward the holed tree. It was covered in greenish-blue moss and looked much stronger and healthier than the other trees, despite its enormous hole. Nate stood in front of it, touching the spiky top of one of its openings without a single thought on the tree, for Nate had no interest of nature. What was on his mind most of all was how he wanted to get away, how sick he was of being there. He missed his bed, he missed his pets, his old school, old life, his games, his Pokémon… Nate took a deep breath. He walked slowly through the tree's hole, exhaling as he passed through the middle, and felt on his neck what he thought was the sun having just come out of the clouds beating down on him a little right as he exited the tree's interior. A sudden silence surrounded him, but he didn't notice it.

"But what's done is done, and I just have to accept it," he muttered.

Sighing once more as he accepted his reality, Nate turned around to face the group, but everyone else was gone.


End file.
